July 14, 2011 2:05 pm

Pat Kirwan of the NFL.com takes a closer look at the needs for NFC West teams. Specifically, quarterback, defensive back and defensive tackle rise to the top of the list for Seattle.

Kirwan suggests that Seattle should make an offer for Cincinnati Bengals’ Carson Palmer that they cannot refuse. He also advocates bringing back defensive end Raheem Brock and signing New York Giants’ defensive tackle Barry Cofield in free agency.

Kirwan: “Seattle knows the secondary has to play better. They have a great young safety in Earl Thomas and a solid corner in Marcus Trufant, but Kelly Jennings and Jordan Babineaux are free agents and Lawyer Milloy is done. The team likes Kam Chancellor, a big, second-year safety from Virginia Tech, but the Seahawks still need a veteran. Getting a top-flight cornerback like the Bengals’ Johnathan Joseph would be ideal. Maybe the Seahawks even look at the Cleveland Browns’ Eric Wright or the New York Jets’ Antonio Cromartie.”

I think the jury is still out on that position change. Unger is a cerebral player, but has had trouble holding up against bigger nose guards in pass protection since joining the league two years ago, along with getting a consistent push in the run game in Seattle’s zone blocking scheme because of his lack of size. That’s one of the positions I’ll be watching closely once training camp begins.

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Gregg Bell joined The News Tribune in July 2014. Bell had been the director of writing for the University of Washington's athletic department for four years. He was the senior national sports writer in Seattle for The Associated Press from 2005-10, covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season and beyond. He's also been The Sacramento Bee's beat writer on the Oakland Athletics and Raiders. The native of Steubenville, Ohio, is a 1993 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and a 2000 graduate of the University of California, Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism.

My take on CB is that most National writers have not taken a close enough look at Thurmond as the potential starting CB this year.

Sure if one of the veteran CB’s can be brought in I’m all for it. But to listen to the rants of the National guys we have Thomas, Trufant, and a whole bunch of scrubs that we found off the street (hey it worked out in 2005).

Seattle has drafted 3 Safeties and 3 CB’s in the last two years. This year we drafted 2 CB’s (Maxwell and Sherman) and 1 Safety (Legree) and last year it was 2 safeties (Chancellor and Thomas) and one CB (Thurmond). All three DB drafts played quite a bit last season and I don’t see anything to make me think all three of this year’s draftees won’t have a good shot of making the team.

This doesn’t even take into consideration the signing of Browner who is sorely missed here in Calgary. He was a shutdown Corner and made the CFL allpro team two years running.

Further it doesn’t consider Lewis who is the likely nickel DB for the team.

I agree with Duke. DB is not the priority that the National guys think it is.

Yeah, DB would seem to be the least of worries and Tate would have a better chance driving at 200mph then Johnson catching a pass against Revis. Athlete or not Jimmy Johnson NASCAR dominance has been impressive as was Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordan before.

Signing Cofield would be ideal. Mebane hasn’t been inked. Should he exit the signing team would be required to compensate the Hawks with a third round draft pick. But a DT tandem Cofield / Mebane looks a hella better than Cole / Terrill.

While their resigning Brock I hope they bring in Cofield’s NYG counterpart, DE Mathias Kiwanuka.

All this and they should still have the (DOH!) cap space to bring in Sidney Rice for BobbyK.

Carlson Palmer would seem to have been a better fit in an offense coordinated by Bates. But at age 32 with a career QB rating of 86.9 he is worth a look c.

chuck – EXACTLY with respect to Thurmond. I’m really excited to watch him become a good, solid CB this season. That’s one of the two CB positions that I have no worries about. And I really like Lewis in the nickel. That’s basically 2 out of the 3 main CBs that are pretty rock solid, IMO. I think Trufant is okay (overpaid, but okay). That makes 3 spots at CB that I’m perfectly fine with. And the young guys are going to get a chance, with one of them taking over for Trufant in ’12 (as his contract isn’t manageable next year).

I would really like to sign Aasomugha (which would likely mean the release of Trufant) and I think that would be really special. In the end, I think he’s going to be too pricey. I thought we had a realistic chance to go after him, but if some of these reports are accurate that he’s going to command/get close to $19 million per season – well, no thanks. Even I have a limit:)

“Mebane hasn’t been inked. Should he exit the signing team would be required to compensate the Hawks with a third round draft pick.”

I don’t believe this is true anymore. The new CBA has all 4 year guys unrestricted, so Mebane would be. Still doesn’t mean Seattle shouldn’t try to sign him, they should. But if they don’t, no picks coming our way.

There is no word yet on whether the new free agent rules will affect existing restricted free agents such as Zach Miller. If the contract rules are retroactive, four year veterans such as Miller will be unrestricted free agents. If they are not retroactive, those rules will only be placed on all rookie contracts from this point forward.

Well, last we heard, free agency will revert to the previous CBA; 4 years unrestricted, rather than the ’10 rules that operated in a vacuum, so-to-speak. But as was noted, we’ll have to wait and see to be sure.

As much of a talent as Rice is, I would argue that at this particular stage, Mebane is of more value to Seattle than he is. Perhaps I’m naive, but I’m more concerned about Mebane not being re-signed than Hass. (Although I certainly hope it’s not an either / or situation.)

Eric, I agree with you about the uncertainty with Max Unger. He has the draft pedigree and seemingly the confidence of the coaches (although I dont think we have heard Cable comment about him directly…) But I dont think he is going to be a punishing bulldozer like the rest of the line is shaping up to be.

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